Although the startup economy is buzzing with lots of excitement and opportunities, it is also fraught with extremely high risks especially when careers and lots of money are involved. Just as every aspect of your startup is important, so is the aspect of hiring the best content writer. Ultimately it is your content that is going to drive the engine of your marketing and communicate your idea to the masses. If the content writer you hire cannot come up with compelling, informative and highly unique content, the going is going to be quite tough for your entire team, and I’m not just saying this because I myself am a content writer – I say this because I know and understand the power of content.
Why hiring a capable content writer takes a backseat especially in the case of startups?
I’m not saying this is the case with most of the startups. There are many startups that take their content seriously because they know that without communicating to their core audience they cannot hope to achieve anything, but most entrepreneurs are too obsessed with their own notion of what people want. What people want might be totally different from what you think they want so no matter how revolutionary your product is, you need to understand what people are looking for, and then offer your product or service accordingly.
Resources are scarce in the beginning. Funding is hard to come and most of the people involved with the startup are spending money out of their own pockets, so they need to be really careful about where they spend that money. Unfortunately, whereas people are ready to spend money on software, website, office space, blog setup and conventional advertising, somehow when it comes to content they think it is merely text and anybody who knows how to write sentences can create content. The effect of a lousy website and buggy software is immediate but not that of content. This is why hiring an experienced and knowledgeable content writer takes a backseat.
Why it pays to have a content writer in your startup team from the beginning?
Every startup needs an involved audience. People among this audience are going to be your pioneers – the first time users, or what they call, the early adopters. These early adopters need to feel passionate about what you are building. Before you can offer your product or service you need to build a platform from where you can broadcast your vital branding messages on an ongoing basis.
Suppose you are building an app that is totally going to change the way people use their browsers. Now, making people use another app or a software tool is always a difficult task because people are so used to using what they are already using. Why would people want to change the way they use their browsers? Even if they’re missing something or they’re not aware of the fact that they’re missing something, and even if they are aware, maybe they don’t want to accept. Whatever is the reason, it is always difficult to make people do things or see them your way. This is where your content writer helps you.
Your content writer is going to become one of your first evangelists who will passionately write about the value you aim to provide to your prospective customers and clients once you have launched your product or service. He or she will make your target audience aware of exactly what you are trying to achieve for the people. This will be achieved through:
- Blogging
- Highly focused ebooks
- Interactive and engaging content on social networking websites
- Email marketing campaigns
- Publishing blogs and articles on other, high traffic websites and blogs
- Case studies and white papers
All these publishing campaigns will not be effective if they are initiated just when a startup is going to launch a product or service. Your content writer requires at least 6 months of constant content generation, publishing and content marketing before you launch your product or service.
How to hire the best content writer for your startup
Here are a few pointers you should keep in mind while looking out for a content writer for your startup:
- He or she is as passionate about your branch of technology as you are (even if he or she isn’t aware of exactly what you’re trying to achieve at that particular time)
- He or she knows how to communicate compellingly and convincingly
- He or she can give you a long-term commitment because often it takes some time to incubate the project and then launch
- He or she is totally comfortable with the language used by your target audience
- He or she totally understands the way people communicate on the Internet and the way they respond to the various content formats
- He or she understands how critical content is for your startup
- He or she is comfortable writing for different mediums such as blogs, social networking websites, email marketing campaigns and ebooks
- He or she has a solid presence on the web including social networking profiles, a business website and a blog (if you don’t intend to hire the content writer on full-time basis)